‘Iolani rolls past Mino Jiyu Gakuen, 45-21

Iolani's Skyy Passi (54) and Wyatt Maa (18) combine on a tackle against Mino Jiyu. Greg Yamamoto | SL

‘Iolani rolled past Mino Jiyu Gakuen (Osaka, Japan), 45-21 in a preseason game at ‘Iolani’s Kozuki Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Bears took an early lead in the first quarter, but the Raiders, ranked No. 2 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division II preseason Power Rankings, responded with 31 unanswered points to go into halftime. Despite the score, it was a unique experience for both teams.

“Our team goes to the mainland every two or three years to join football camps every summer, but this time one of our players fell down during the game on August 10 of last year and died the next day. So he wanted to come to Hawaii for college and wanted to be a trainer and in his will we decided to come to Hawaii,” said Masa Nakayama, a Mino Jiyu English teacher, who translated for Mino Jiyu Gakuen coach Naoto Saiuchi.

Prior to the start of the game, there was a moment of silence for Ryohei Urano, the Mino Jiyu player who passed away last year who dreamed of coming to the University of Hawaii to study athletic training and football.

“I think the head coach came two years ago and visited here on vacation and fell in love with the school and did some research on us and was interested in playing us. I think we had similar type of players and he wanted to bring his team and give them an opportunity to come to Hawaii and play American football,” said ‘Iolani coach Wendell Look.

‘Iolani established the running game early and finished with 215 net rushing yards. Storm Lotomau finished the game with 10 carries for 94 yards and two touchdowns while KJ Pascua had 15 carries for 113 yards and two touchdowns.

“Today we came out firing and I’m impressed with the o-linemen with their blocks and the chemistry between our team was so strong today. We kept firing and our tempo was fast and they were tired and it gave us more energy to keep firing,” said Lotomau.

The Golden Bears came last week on Aug. 7 and several ‘Iolani players and their families had the opportunity to host some of the players during their stay in Hawaii.

“I think they asked if they could home stay and I’ve taken teams over there where they home stayed our kids and the experience is just tremendous. I think there’s apprehension on both sides, but they figure out ways to communicate and find out that they are not that different and had a lot of fun and learned a lot about each other, I think the Japanese kids learned a lot about Hawaii and our culture and I thought our kids did a great job representing not only ‘Iolani School but the state of Hawaii,” said Look.

“All of the players, stayed with the ‘Iolani player’s families as guests,” confirmed Nakayama.

Mino Jiyu scored on an efficient 11 play, 87 yard drive that went four minutes and 26 seconds after Koki Nishino passed it to Ryoto Kuwata for a 20 yard touchdown to put the Golden Bears up first, 7-0.

“That’s their style and mentality and they never quit and will keep playing no matter what the score is and give their best effort, regardless. They didn’t come all the way here to be embarrassed and I told our guys they’re going to try and win this game. I think they are impressive in their discipline and how they carry themselves on and off the field. I think that’s the reason why the coach wanted to bring them here to play us and we were similar in that sense,” said Look.

Storm Lotomau scored a 10 yard touchdown, but Bronson Gouveia’s run was stopped short and the Raiders trailed 7-6. After the Golden Bears went three and out, Austin Jim On threw a 20 yard touchdown pass to Conor Hannum, and Gouveia’s run was good to make it 14-7.

Lotomau added another 10 yard touchdown and Pascua punched in a 1-yard touchdown to make it 28-7. Keoni-Kordell Makekau drilled a 38 yard field goal with no time remaining to put the Raiders up, 31-7 at halftime. In the second half, backup quarterback Jake Smotherman had a 23 yard touchdown pass to Brent Nagami.

Nishino threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Yuichiro Morioka in the third quarter and a 4-yard touchdown pass to Ryuta Tsushima late in the fourth quarter. He finished the game 14-of-28 passing for 155 yards and 3 touchdowns. Running back Yuto Kakehashi had 12 carries for 52 yards.

Mino Jiyu will leave for Japan on Monday and 'Iolani will have a couple weeks off before they host Damien in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu opener on Aug. 29.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].